Taxes & Being a Freelance Writer

Video Transcript

REBECCA SATO: Hi. I'm Rebecca with ExpertVillage.com, and we're going to talk about taxes in freelance writing. How does that work? Well, it's different. It can be a little different for everyone depending on your contract and what you're doing. A lot of times, if you're a freelance writer, you'll get 1090 Form and you'll be taxed for projects and you'll end up getting taxed at the end of the year. So it's something to keep in mind with that is you want to to do the research. I'm not going to have the time to give you a whole class in taxes in freelance writing, but I do want you to be aware of a few key things. One of which is that you still have to pay taxes. And even if no one knows the work you've done, well, somebody does. The company that paid you to write for them is going to submit that as a loss. So it's out there so you just need to [SOUNDS LIKE] stay up and up and know that you do have to pay taxes one way or another, eventually. So keep that in mind and realize that you might need to be setting aside a little bit of your income every time you get a job. I would recommend just setting aside 20 to 30 percent and keep it in a separate bank account. So that at the end of the year, you're not looking at having to pay a huge amount of taxes that you don't have because you already spent the money. So it does take a little bit discipline. On the plus side, being a freelance writer, you are basically self-employed. And there are a lot of things that you can write off on your taxes. Be aware that your computer, your desktop, your laptop, any materials you use for writing, anything that you do to do your job as a writer, you can save and you can legitimately write off in expenses. Let's say, for example, that you have to write an article about, well, you don't have to do anything. You're commissioned to write an article about massage therapy, but you've never gotten a massage. Well, you don't get paid to go get a massage but that was part of your research so save your receipt. I mean, that's legitimate. If you have to go and get that massage to write about an experience for your article, then that's tax deductible. So keep those things in mind. And you want to be honest. You don't want to start saving every receipt for everything and finding some tricky way to relate it to your career. But on the other hand, you don't want to throw away legitimate receipts and not keep track of it. So keep a separate file and keep it organized, and it will make easier at the end of the year and realize that you can deduct all of those expenses.

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